London assailant charged with attempted murder over terror stabbing of two Jews

Essa Suleiman also charged with attempted murder in an unrelated incident on the same day; report reveals he was imprisoned in 2008 for stabbing a police officer and his dog

The London Metropolitan Police said Friday that it has charged 45-year-old Essa Suleiman with attempted murder following a Counter Terrorism Policing investigation into an antisemitic terror attack during which two Jewish men were stabbed on Wednesday.

Suleiman has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a bladed article in a public place in relation to the attack, police said.

The Somalia-born British citizen is suspected of stabbing Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, in an attack on Wednesday in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green, in north London.

Both victims were taken to the hospital in serious condition. Rand has since been discharged, police said, and Shine remains hospitalized in a stable condition.

Suleiman has also been charged with attempted murder in relation to a separate incident earlier on the same day in south London, police said.

He has been remanded in custody and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday for the first time.

He appeared in the dock wearing a grey tracksuit on Friday, when prosecutor Emma Harraway said Suleiman had attacked a former friend in south London on Wednesday morning before carrying out the attack in north London later that day.

He will appear again at London’s Old Bailey court on May 15.

Following the attack, officials raised the national terrorism threat to its second-highest level, meaning another terrorist attack within the next six months is highly likely, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed stronger action to protect Jewish people, who have been repeatedly targeted in recent months.

The attack, in addition to deepening the already heightened fears of London’s Jewish community, has raised questions about the efficacy of the British government’s counter-radicalization measures.

Police said on Thursday that Suleiman was referred to the government’s counter-radicalization Prevent program in 2020, but his case was closed within six weeks.

Prevent was already under increased scrutiny following the murder of three children by Axel Rudakubana in Southport in July 2024. Rudakubana had been referred to the deradicalization program three times in three years, and his case was closed each time.

On Friday, The Telegraph reported that Suleiman had previously been jailed for stabbing a police officer in 2008.

Suleiman, who was 27 at the time, was handed a sentence of imprisonment for public protection after stabbing Police Constable Neil Sampson in the head, face and leg with a bread knife during a violent altercation, the newspaper reported.

Suleiman also stabbed Sampson’s dog, a German Shepherd named Anya, in the stomach as she tried to protect Sampson, The Daily Mail reported, a feat for which she was later awarded the PDSA Gold Medal, an animal bravery award.

His prison sentence had no set time limit, with the judge instead recommending that he be released only if he was determined to no longer be a risk to the public.

It was not clear from the report when Suleiman was released from prison and whether the judge’s recommendation had been taken into consideration when releasing him.

The attack on Wednesday was the latest in a string of violent acts targeting London’s Jewish community. It took place just 300 yards from the site of an arson attack targeting four ambulances owned by Jewish charity Hatzola, which were parked outside a synagogue.

The government has been accused of failing to protect Britain’s Jews, and Starmer was met by protesters chanting “Keir Starmer, Jew Harmer,” as he visited Golders Green on Thursday.

Addressing the claim from the newly formed terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) that it was behind the attack, Starmer said his government would seek “stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran, because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews.”

HAYI is believed to have links to Iran and has claimed credit for some of the recent antisemitic incidents in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Starmer also suggested that people who use the phrase “globalize the intifada” should be prosecuted, describing the popular anti-Israel chant as a call for “terrorism against Jews.”

“Of course, we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest in this country,” the prime minister said during an address. “But if you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews. If you stand alongside people who say globalize the Intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood acknowledged that massive pro-Palestinian protests have increased the pressure on the Jewish community, and suggested the government would do more to limit them.

But despite Starmer and Mahmood’s declarations that more must be done, the Daily Mail reported on Thursday that significant changes were unlikely, as ministers in the House of Lords recently voted down proposals to ban the pro-Palestine marches, forcing the government to adopt more limited restrictions that could only limit the demonstrations rather than put a stop to them.

Britain is home to some 280,000 Jews. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants, multiple Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.

Britain’s chief rabbi has said that UK Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation.

The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the UK has soared since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to CST. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.

In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.